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In an effort to combat the harmful physiological, societal, and psychological effects of the cutting of arts and music program budgets in public schools, and close the achievement gap for those in lower socioeconomic classes and underrepresented populations, this thesis created a functional community music training program, especially for homeless youth in Portland, OR. The author reviewed current literature across disciplines to form a curriculum based on evidence in psychological, educational, and cognitive neuroscience research. The curriculum was collaboratively formed with active music training professionals. The intervention was piloted via the ongoing collaboration between Portland-based arts-integrated science outreach group NW Noggin, and the daytime homeless youth center, p:ear. Observed efficacy, reaction, and implications for future efforts are discussed. Keywords​: Homelessness, Arts-Integration, Music, Education, Neuroscience. COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 3 I. Literature Review Arts Programs and Educational Policy In the last year, our government has proposed the dissolution of nineteen publicly funded arts programs, including the national endowment for the arts. (Chu, 2017). According to the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP, 2016), art and music scores are already on the decline since 2008 and attendance in art and music programs has dropped as well. This problem is not a new one. In 2001, following passage of the “No Child Left Behind Act,” there was immediately an approximately 22% decrease in instructional time given to art and music in public schools nationwide (Whitehorne 2006). Although the No Child Left Behind Act does contain art as one of its “core principles,” the progress measures used (e.g. standardized testing for math, reading), force schools to direct their curriculum towards helping the students pass these tests. Now more than ever, students need affordable extra-curricular programs to stimulate the creativity, achievement, esteem, and neuroplasticity that only the arts can deliver. Brain-Based Education Educational research has recently combined forces with the field of neuroscience to look at some of the more physiological bases for learning and development. Brain-based educational research looks at brain health and the learning environment in combination with content learning. This is a more holistic approach because it takes into account sleep, nutrition, trauma, and racial/ethnic/socioeconomic diversity as well as pedagogy. This approach is also founded in more quantifiable terms, which means that COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 4 the research is less subjective and more applicable in working towards educational policy change. For example, it is intuitive that arts integration in classrooms engages students through novelty and forces them to think about information in new ways. But in viewing this theory through the lens of cognitive neuroscience, it has been shown that thinking about information in a variety of ways improves retention through the cognitive neuroscience of semantics, cues, enactment, oral production, emotional arousal, and pictorial representation (Rinne, et al., 2011). Cognitive neuroscience research has also found evidence that long-term artistic training can “macroscopically imprint a neural network system of spontaneous activity...” Simply put, artistic training nurtures the growth of more flexible and resilient neurons in the brain (Limb, et al., 2014). With this perspective, new doors are opened to educational research and practice, and more robust and substantial methods of teaching and learning can be established. Music on the Developing Brain More specifically, music-making, especially improvisation, has been shown to create a dissociation between the medial prefrontal cortex and the lateral prefrontal cortex that stimulates creative generation while interrupting inhibition (Lopez-Gonzales & Limb, 2012). This means that during the process of creation, inhibitions are lowered, helping students learn without the fear of being wrong. In addition, heightened brain activity, in many more parts of the brain, helps create a stronger network by which to draw on, and increases long term memory of the content (Rinne, et al., 2011). ​There is also a theory that learning to play a musical instrument in childhood will stimulate COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 5 cognitive development and enhance skills in extramusical areas, which is commonly referred to as transfer (Bangerter & Heath, 2004). Though this theory is controversial to some, there is evidence to show that in only 15 months of instrumental music training on the developing brain, there are significant, visible, physiological changes that happen in the brain (Hyde et al., 2009), many of which can still be seen, and are beneficial, more than 40 years after stopping musical training (​White-Schwoch, Carr, Anderson, Strait, & Kraus, 2013). Behaviorally speaking there is evidence that musical aptitude is associated with literacy (Anvari, Trainor, Woodside, & Levy, 2002; Lamb & Gregory, 1993), general intelligence (Lynn, Wilson, & Gault, 1989), verbal memory (Ho, Cheung, & Chan, 2003), spatial ability (Hetland, 2000), reading ability (Hurwitz, Wolff, Bortnick, & Kokas, 1975), selective attention (Hurwitz et al., 1975), and mathematics achievement (Cheek & Smith, 1999). One study even found that in just 36 weeks of musical training, there were more significant increases in the IQ of 6 year olds than in those without musical training (Schellenberg, 2004). Because music encourages plasticity in the brain, it has been shown that regular, casual engagement with music-making prevents the neurological decline that comes with aging and lowers overall “brain-age” (Rogenmoser et al., 2017). In a very interesting study by Kraus, Slater, Thompson, Hornickel, Strait, Nicol, & White-Schwoch (2014), the authors addressed the problem of high levels of ambient noise, and fewer opportunities for complex language interaction, in children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds by providing community music lessons. They found that these community music lessons helped spark the neuroplasticity that many of the COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 6 children from disadvantaged backgrounds would typically miss out on (Kraus et al., 2017). Another study found that children who actively engaged in instrument training had faster and more robust neural processing of speech sound as well as higher scores in literacy. The authors conclude that music-making promotes experience-dependent neuroplasticity and auditory learning (Kraus et al., 2014). These findings were not particularly new. In a much older study that looked at the relationship between music training and reading skills such as phonemic discrimination, reading performance, and correct changes of pitch and timbre, it was found that discrimination of musical sounds gained from musical training is related to reading performance, literacy, and linguistic achievement (Lamb & Gregory, 1993). Arts Integration in the Classroom The benefits of arts integration in classrooms is not a new topic of research. There is evidence in many fields that the arts have positive effects on people on many levels. For example, there is longitudinal evidence to show that arts-integrated educational systems result in higher long-term retention of subject matter taught (Hardiman, Rinne, & Yarmolinskaya, 2014). Even more interesting is that this increase in retention was found to be even larger in populations of students with lower levels of reading achievement (Hardiman et al., 2014). Findings like these are not uncommon, in a study conducted by UCLA on the effects of the arts on human development, it was found that academic achievement was positively correlated with arts involvement and the gains became more pronounced over time. Furthermore, the gains in academic achievement were even more pronounced in those students from the lowest COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 7 socioeconomic demographics, and those of the lowest academic achievement, or considered “at risk” (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999). These findings give us some preliminary evidence towards closing achievement gaps, and creating more universally applicable curriculum. In a research review on the pros and cons of arts-integration in the classroom, evidence was found to support that arts-integrated classrooms had increased student involvement, enhanced higher order thinking, more entry points for content discussion and discovery, higher cultural literacy and applicability, enhanced imagination and visualization, more engagement in intra/interpersonal skills, more collaborative work, improved spatial thinking abilities in math settings, higher rates of healthy risk-taking and creative problem solving, and more welcoming classroom environment towards diversity and multiculturalism (Gullat, 2008). There are several operations that have been thought to be reasons for the effectiveness of arts-integration. Arts-based learning requires complex and effective operations such as repetition, formalization, dynamic variation, exaggeration, and surprise, which demand more of student’s attention, engagement, sensory perception and reaction, and even physical movement (Hartle, 2015). It has also been found arts-integration in the classroom, even as a supplement to lessons in other subjects, helps students create meaning with the content and listen more attentively, increasing knowledge gained and even performance on tests (Gullat, 2008). One of the biggest advantages to arts-integrated learning environments is that they are altogether more “fun.” In a qualitative study conducted by the Demoss & Morris (2002), similar amounts COMMUNITY MUSIC FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 8 of correlation were found between arts-integration and academic achievement, and arts-integration and “fun” or enjoyment with the subject matter. When students enjoy t

Community Music for Human Development : A Brain-Centered Approach to Outreach